1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to the smoothing and shrinking of fabrics and more particularly to the smoothing and shrinking of textile material, either tubular or open, through the use of moisture and calendaring.
2. Description of the Related Art.
In one known process, a predetermined residual shrinkage value can be obtained by connecting an additional shrinking dryer in the sequence. This involves additional expense and investments. This process also has the disadvantage that with lines of goods consisting of different materials, different shrinkage values are obtained and there is no possibility of getting definite predetermined residual shrinkage with this known treatment.
For many textiles, for example, a residual shrinkage value of about 3% is desired. Such shrunk goods do not shrink much further in a washing machine, and on the other hand, do not stretch much when hung on a clothesline for drying. This means that with a residual shrinkage value of about 3%, an acceptable compromise can be reached for the different washing and drying methods.
The purpose of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a process where, on the one hand, a much stronger shrinkage than heretofore accomplished is achieved, and which, even in material lines differing as to material and processing, makes possible the predetermined production of a definite residual shrinkage value.